Incidents
by Litt
Summary: Incidents in the lives of Avatar characters. Drabbles and snippets.
1. Toph

**Incidents in the Life of Toph**_  
_Litt  
Dec 14, 06

--

The eventful day ends and tension that had once been forgotten settles on the camp again. Though Appa accepts her apology, she does not know the color of the apple she gives him.

---

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Why are you staring at me?"

"How can you tell?"

"You--"

"—are pretty when you're angry."

"Stop staring."

---

There had been nothing she could do to stop it, so she tried everything.

---

She's still in a fighting stance, still waiting for another attack, even after she feels the crazy girl run for it. Someone's down, breathing shallowly, and she recognizes the feel of him. Sokka touches her shoulder, tells her it's over; far off, Katara's voice offers help, but Toph can tell her body is rebelling, leaning towards a hesitant Aang. Through her feet, she's realizing she'd been right. She is cold, even after Zuko flames them away.

---

"He said he didn't love me." Toph says in her softest voice, which isn't soft enough for a cemetery setting. She feels the young man stiffen beside her and resists the urge to lie. "He would never have said that of you."

---

"You weren't always the last, Aang," Toph feels him shrug and guesses he's closer to falling asleep than he had been when she'd showed up to relieve him. She nudges his shoulder. "Her name was Malu. They say she was beautiful."

"Toph, she's dead now." (They all are.)

She hears the struggle and ignores it, waits for him to sit up. "We're in her cave. She lived here for years—she talked with spirits; they say this place is haunted." Her whisper is that of a conspirator's and echoes even if she's leaning close enough to his ear to see it.

A shift; he's facing her now. "Why are you telling me this? Ghosts don't scare me." His attempt to lighten the mood fails and she feels him shift away from her. "I'm the last _now_, Toph. I'm… okay with that." His voice is higher and she knows he's just tried to smile through the lie.

"No one asked you to be." He doesn't ask what she means. "Sure you're the last of your people, but you're not alone."

A pause. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because," she answers bluntly, sitting next to him, "you need to stop taking it so impersonally; sometimes you need to remember to _stay_ safe."

He sighs and she grabs his chin; he lets her.

"But you are the last, and if you do something stupid like that again I'll beat your sorry butt back to Omashu."

"I'll be dead by then, so—Ow! Seriously, Toph, don't _do_ that--" (I might hurt you.)

"Don't joke. You're the last; you can't die on me."

"You're the only; neither can you."

---

"You look different in red."

"Yeah? Well, who's asking?"

"It's not a bad thing, Toph."

"It was Zuko's idea."

"Long live the King."

"That's Fire Lord, Snoozles."

"For _once_, just take a compliment."

"Give me one first."

---

The drums that marked the beginning and end of the Festival of Spring always kept Toph awake. From her room, when she was younger, she'd wonder what she was missing; from an alley, a few years later, she sees what is to be had and takes it.

---

"Why?"

The water is the only sound she hears for a while, and then, his voice, low and sad. "I can't lose anyone again."

Even though everything is distracting-- the water is too cool, seems to mock her, and he's _holding_ her--she is determined to get through this. "Fair enough," she allows, not asking.

"Try again. Hey," he adds as his hands find her shoulders--promising, in a way as far away from their lake as possible, to support her--"relax."

_Easy for you say_, she thinks even as she allows her feet to leave the ground and, before she freaks out and chokes on a gulp of water, becomes completely blind.

---

It is only MoMo's trill that saves her.

She attacks without pause, without cursing, without mercy.

Aang groans and sets his glider down on the grass. "Dinner's ready."

---

She doesn't understand it really.

Once even the formal rites are done, the two continue to dance around the issue. Iroh, privy to many of her rants/insights, offers the obvious flaw: "You are mistaking love for something that arrives at its destination after a headlong journey."

Toph scoffs. "I am _not_. They're acting like they don't already _know_ what's under their robes!"

His laugh is something of a gift, guttural and light, something he offers often, all the better to see him with. "Then go on and kiss the two of them for each other then,"

After a minute of hearing the two mumble excuses for bumping shoulders, she stands up, dusts off her tunic, and marches up to do just that.

---

How she'd managed to infuriate any earthly deity so much, she doesn't know, but she promises to stop cursing and...well, she promises to stop if only she doesn't have to be the taste tester. Ever again.

Even though the boys claim not to know what she's talking about, she forces to them to the ground. They confess, after much deliberating, to leaving because they thought the sight of Katara and Toph whispering by the fire meant girl time.

---

The boy is lying. All the hearts in the room are beating erratically enough to make her feel guilty.

---

If there was any extra sign or incentive she needed to prove that her parents didn't know her at all, it was the bounty hunters. The Master was good but still under the impression that he is better than she is, has been, always will be; he goes down because he is stubborn, unconvinced. The loud man is all action, all muscle, all greed; he goes down because he is stupid and believes he is strong. She's grown since they last met, but she beats them and she is just a little girl of twelve.

---

Among other things, her mother made her learn the useless music. When the old man finds out, he teaches her art.

--

**AN**: Wrote these without prompts as well, just after I started the new trio collection. Toph rocks . There are too many things I didn't touch on.


	2. Azula, Mai, Ty Lee

**Incidents in the Lives of Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee**_**  
**_Litt  
----/Dec 14, 06

--

There are bad days when her threats burn more than the suggested actions might—and there are days when she doesn't warn you at all.

---

The water is cold, but Azula tells them it is to condition them. Ty Lee does not complain but Mai makes it very clear that _if_ she didn't resent the upper society so much, she would complain about bathing in a lake, loudly. "At least they had heated water," she mutters. Ty Lee barely has time to jump onto the shore before she hears her friend grumble out another half-apology.

---

Before dawn, if she can, she stretches. There isn't enough time once Azula wakes up to meditate, once Mai checks her blades, because they are invariably ready to leave within an hour. Ty Lee has hundreds of muscles that need to be woken, seven chakras that need to be cleansed, and a meal to cook; all of her routine is out of survival. All she has is her body. It is still growing; her friends will never be any more powerful than they are now.

---

"Your uncle is a kind man," Ty Lee breaks the silence, a blush creeping up her cheeks.

Azula had not gotten jade bracelets or onyx-handled blades for _her_ seventh birthday, so she says nothing.

Mai inspects her friend's gift with a seriousness that brings the formality of the occasion back into play; she does not have to tell her friend they were courtesy presents, given by a gracious prince to his niece's best friends, and should not be followed with hugs or squeals to said prince; she does not have the heart to tell her that her bracelet, though obviously priceless, was chosen with enough care to make sure it was inferior to whatever he gave to Azula. Ty Lee waits with baited breath to hear the verdict: "He is."

---

Mai cares…

She cares about her duties as much as she can afford _not_ to and her rights as a lady with as much enthusiasm as can be expected. She cares when Ty Lee's smile flares to hide what should not be behind it, or when her lip bleeds because she cannot. She cares when Azula smiles _that_ smile and when her eyes narrow when it doesn't solve anything. She cares about her health and clothes because no one else could, though they try, and she cares because she can.

Because no one stops her.

---

"But...I thought you liked roast turkey-goose."

Mai sighs in a long-suffering manner; pinching her bleeding nose does nothing to help maintain the authoritative demeanor she's trying to uphold. "Where did you get the money to buy it?"

Ty Lee doesn't answer straight away but later on that night, after Azula eats her share--always a fair amount as her training leaves her ravenous--and retires to the tent, she apologizes.

It is then that she notices her friend's ankle lacks their friendship anklet.

---

A plan is hatched. As always, it revolves around Mai: she'd been moping around the palace for the past week, not answering questions, not attending any court dances any longer than was polite, so of course it was time to do something about it. Ty Lee agrees to wear the mask before she realized Azula had brought one of her own. This is all her idea. It is not a very elaborate one, but it will work. As always, Azula is right. The boy swats at them with heavily-ringed hands and robes with too much musk and Azula makes a show of it before letting herself fall; she makes a show of crying as well. Courtiers and ladies and, finally, the boy's betrothed, Mai, come to investigate. A day later, he is sent from court, all ties to nobiltiy broken. As always, Mai doesn't ask.

---

"I'm fine."

Mai sighs and throws a wet rag the girl's way. "Sure you are."

---

"I've watched you burn villages and spark lightning, but this is the coldest hug I've ever felt."

Azula frowns and sit back into her throne. Mai is on a thin edge and she doesn't seem to care. Azula had taken them both into confidence, asked rare advice, dropped her armor and made an effort to initiate an atmosphere similar to what they'd had as children. She must have forgotten that this is how it has always been; it was forced, but Mai's rebuff was not fake.

"Don't worry Princess," Ty Lee pipes in. "I'll teach you."

---

It's a test of loyalty as much as it is of endurance.

One of them is smiling through sweat, the other through tears.

---

"He gave his life for me." Ty Lee's voice calls from the pit of her guilt.

May takes a bite out of her apple. "She took it."

The girl looks down at her lap: the clothes are dark green, light brown, frayed, rough against her skin. They are easy to move in, now that they are broken. "It was still for me."

---

It is not easy, living with a princess. Her back hurts.

---

"If you do, I'll do it, too."

"Somehow I doubt he'll appreciate that."

"Nonsense. I'm his sister. Why would he not accept a kiss from me?"

---

"I win." Azula flares, standing in raw rage, pure passion. Her hair is out and her knuckles are white; Ty Lee is not sure why she is noticing these things when her princess is naked and her voice is so loud, so challenging. But she is. Anything to avoid looking at the other person in the room, crumpled on the floor.

"You win." The confession echoes.

---

"What is it?" Azula asks, disgust rippling under her skin.

"It's a frog."

"Why?"

Someone's placing a cool cloth on her forehead and she forgets to get angry. Mm.

"Please." A gravelly voice that makes her tired enough to agree.

"Say 'ahh',"

---

It still scares her when the dark comes, even though this is supposed to mean that Azula shouldn't be able to hurt her (much). Even (and especially) after fifteen years, because, in all actuality, night time is the worst for her; the girl loves a challenge, loves being inventive, and, though the flames are marginally weaker, they illuminate the scars, the bruises, and her malicious smile. Ty Lee would rather fight her at dawn, or noon, when it was fire instead of nails, tongues, and hisses.

---

It's night already and none of them can sleep just yet. "Well?"

Her face remains stoic though there are hints that it might have been a horrific mask of something else just moments before she left the room. "It was a waste. She was a waste."

"Better safe than sorry," Azula's voice floats from the door, the faintest of smirks still resting on her lips as she eyes her friend. "It's better if we know everything we can about he enemy."

Mai tries to appear as unfazed as she can while arguing her point. "I told you--"

"Who was she?" Ty Lee cuts in.

Both girls cease their feud and say a name that seems to matter to them for different reasons: "Jin."

---

Half-truths, it saves them all. There are the parts they show each other with most of them buried to make it seem worth it. There are the other parts of them that they deny.

She follows instinct, her strongest.

She wants but never gets.

She tries and tries and tries….

--

**AN**: Started this a while ago, after I lost the initial draft. There's no replacing drabbles. I tried. I wish I had prompts for them at the time. After this, I wondered if I was focusing too much on one of the girls and if I even described their dynamic; I want to do each of them apart.


End file.
